Constructing Education: a framework for participation to support the effective planning and use of new school spaces.

Abstract

The purpose of this reflection paper is to present a new framework to guide the process of investment in education infrastructure through participatory planning, and to consider its application to the development of innovative spaces.  Financing education infrastructure provides an opportunity to innovate to support student learning, but for this to happen infrastructure and education investments need to be conceived from the beginning as a single, intertwined process. The Constructing Education framework is based on research evidence about the effects of educational environments and theoretical understanding of change. It draws on the issues identified in a series of in-depth reviews carried out in the cities of Espoo, Finland, the department of Seine-Saint Denis, France and Malmö, Sweden, to explore the links between construction and education during the investment process.    The intention of the framework is that collaborative actions undertaken at individual, structural and cultural levels ensure a better alignment of design and use so that school spaces built, refurbished or reorganised can be better contributors to students’ learning. This participatory approach to guide investments in infrastructure embeds an education perspective within the standard architectural phases guiding construction. The framework identifies the individual and organisational activities relating to education that need to take place in parallel to the architectural brief, construction, hand-over and post-occupancy evaluation phases, and proposes including the cost of these educational activities in the total costs of the infrastructure project. It proposes for example, that in parallel and in coordination with the development of the brief, the educational vision of the school be developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders, so that the spaces designed reflect the vision of learning endorsed.  The construction time can be used to get teachers ready for the new spaces, providing them with the opportunities to test new furniture and practice new approaches in prototype classrooms.  The moving-in phase that accompanies the hand-over is conceived as a time to develop the ownership for the new spaces, to ensure they reflect school and community values.  Finally, the framework proposes that opportunities for reflection and adjustment in the use of the spaces be promoted all along the life of the building, alongside and then beyond, the architectural post-occupancy evaluations that are conducted to inform the next phase of investments.   In the paper, we explain our conceptualisation of the issues and challenges that the framework addresses, discussing these particularly in relation to innovative learning environments. We then reflect on the sufficiency of the framework to respond to differences between nations in the organisation of education systems and their understandings of education.